Oude Geuze Dry-Hopped

Pours unclear amber. Small white head dissapears fast. Scent is herbal, green, harsh. mild lambic funk beneath. Taste is full, sharp, citrussy acidity, oak, brett. Medium loud herbal, green notes from the hops. bit earthy. Easy drinkable. not my favorite blender, not my favorite idea (dry hopped lambic) , but somehow it does work for me, it's actually quite a nice one, which is a big surprise.

New addition to the range of Timmermans, the lambic brewery in Itterbeek with a turbulent history dating back to at least the early 18th century, owned by John Martin since 1993, after which the 75 cl bottlings (of e.g. the classic Gueuze Caveau, already a very soft example of the style back then, in my memory at least) were abandoned and everything that came out of the brewery was sweetened, pasteurised and, well, 'compromised'. Only in 2013, after having felt the western winds of change sweeping through the beer world, did John Martin's Timmermans come up with a true traditional geuze, still in existence today. Since then, several memorable 'authentic' lambics have availed - the bourbon barrel aged version of Griotteke was a thing of pure beauty, for instance, so my hopes for this dry-hopped geuze, in a new and still experimental phase of 'hoppy lambics' pioneered by Cantillon's Cuvée Des Champions in 2004, are quite high. Medium thick, snow white, tiny-bubbled and stable, shred-lacing, only slowly opening head; misty orange blonde robe with warm tangerine glow and fine strings of bubbles rising up here and there. Aroma of lime juice, green apple slices, gooseberries, damp haystack, grapefruit zest, freshly cut dandelions, grape skin or very dry white wine somewhere, sourdough, bergamot oil, kombucha, sawdust, dry earth, hints of river sand, old books, dried pine needles, black tea, acrylic fabric somewhere. Lemony onset, lots of green apple and gooseberry but also a strong underlying wryness of unripe green plum, somewhat astringent, an effect doubtlessly enhanced by the hops; bright minerality underneath in spite of softer effervescence than expected (and even a bit below average for a geuze), supple body. Bread-crusty graininess under drying lactic acidity but remaining crisply 'green-fruity', with growing woody tannins and pronounced hop bitterness, which actually matches well with the woodiness and the overall dry character of the lambic - the retronasal aromas one tends to associate with Idaho 7, Azacca and Sultana hops remain relatively subdued, even if a clear grapefruity effect is very noticeable. I must admit that with this combo, I was expecting more tropical fruit as well, but this is a geuze after all and not an IPA so perhaps in a lambic context, it is for the better that the hops' aromatics remain limited to grapefruit peel and orange pith-like effects. The bitterness, however, is long, strong and rooty, with a somewhat tonic water-like resonance in the end, while the sour traces of lemony flavours linger, as does that 'sparkly' minerality not coming from actual sparkling. Altogether different from what I was expecting, but as a whole, definitely a fine geuze with a citrusy twist and more bitterness than average. It did not blow me away like Griotteke did, though.